Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog begins nationwide campaign to celebrate “Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan” - Promoting extensive use of cow-dung/ Panchgavya products this Diwali Festival
Encouraged by the response to Gaumaya Ganesha Campaign which encouraged usage of eco-friendly material in manufacture of idols for the Ganesha Festival based on the appeal made by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog  has started a nation- wide campaign to celebrate “Kamdhenu Deepawali Abhiyan” this year on the occasion of Deepawali festival. Through this campaign, the RKA is promoting extensive use of cow-dung/ Panchgavya products during this Diwali Festival. Manufacture of Cow dung based Diyas, Candles, Dhoop, Agarbatti, Shubh-Labh, Swastik, Samrani, Hardboard, Wall-piece, Paper-weight, Havan samagri, Idols of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi for this year’s Diwali festival has already started.
RKA aims reaching 11 crore families to ignite 33 crore Diyas made of cow-dung during this year’s Deepawali festival. The feedback received so far is very encouraging and approximately 3 lakh Diyas will be ignited in the holy city of Ayodhya alone, 1 lakh Diyas will be lit in holy city of Varanasi. Apart from generating business opportunities to thousands of cow-based entrepreneurs / farmers/ women entrepreneurs, the use of cow-dung products will lead to cleaner and healthier environment. It will help in making Gaushalas ‘Atma Nirbhar’ too. By providing an environment friendly alternative to Chinese made Diyas, the campaign will boost up Make in India vision and mission of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and also promote ‘Swadeshi’ movement while reducing environmental damage.
RKA has been interacting with various stakeholders through a series of webinars to focus and promote use of cow-dung in manufacture of items that can be used in this year’s Deepawali. RKA has enhanced its presence through their representatives in every district across all States for the campaign to motivate and facilitate production of Kamdhenu Deepawali related items in Gaushalas all over the country along with nationwide marketing plan. Various segments of stakeholders like farmers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, Gaushalas and other concerned are being involved at large to make the campaign of Kamdhenu Deepawali a grand success.
Recently, the RKA had launched a nation-wide campaign on various platforms of social media to use eco-friendly material in manufacture of idols of Lord Ganesha for this year’s Ganesha Festival on appeal of the Prime Minister. It generated a considerable interest in various stakeholders like dairy farmers / unemployed youth / women and young entrepreneurs / Gaushalas/ Gopalaks / Self Help Groups etc.
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog  has been constituted by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the conservation, protection and development of cows and their progeny and for giving direction to the cattle development programmes. RKA is high powered permanent body to formulate policy and to provide direction to the implementation of schemes related to cattle so as to give more emphasis on livelihood generation. Livestock economy sustains nearly 73 million households in rural areas. Even though, the country is largest producer of milk, the average milk yield in India is only 50% of the world average. The low productivity is largely due to deterioration in genetic stock, poor nutrition and unscientific management. The trend needs to be reversed and popular perception about cow and cow based agriculture and cow based industry need to be corrected immediately for social and economic rejuvenation of society particularly poor in rural areas.
RKA is trying to its best to implement the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat'. The Cow-centric economy can also help in achieving this goal by making its own humble contribution. For this purpose, RKA has been consistently endeavoring to increase the use of various cow- panchgavya products to raise the income of farmers, gaupalaks, youth, women, self-help groups and other stakeholders.
APS/MG/AS